MA'SUM GHAR, Afghanistan - The all-terrain vehicle kicks up a cloud of dust as the Canadian soldiers rush down the dirt road, their human cargo sprawled on stretchers strapped to the front.

Another two casualties of the interminable Afghan war, brought to the front gate of a forward operating base near the town of Bazar-e Panjwaii for treatment at the small make-shift clinic on the side of a hill.

Without a proper hospital for miles around, the best hope for injured Afghans rests with a Canadian team stationed here, which is why the two men ended up at the base gate on Thursday.

They had been helping supply security for a construction project on a road between Bazar-e Panjwaii and a tiny Canadian outpost a few kilometres to the south — a road Canadian soldiers travel frequently.

"There's been an IED hit on the road," says Maj. Frederic Pruneault, commander of Airborne Company at Ma'sum Ghar.

"They were private security contractors who were working to make this road better."

While one of the injured only received cuts to his face, the other man is obviously in bad shape.

He is semi-conscious with a serious chest wound. His lung has collapsed. His arm is broken, the tip of a finger gone. Shrapnel wounds pepper much of his body.

Within seconds, the Canadians led by Warrant Officer Yves Martin, a physician assistant, have unloaded him from the ATV and begin stabilizing, life-saving treatment.

They strip him down and cover him with a foil blanket for warmth — his protruding, bloodied feet quiver occasionally — before setting about getting his breathing normalized and his damaged arm and hand bandaged.

About a half-dozen people work on the man, while others tend to his colleague, laid out on another stretcher-table a few feet away. The quarters are cramped and rudimentary, but no one seems to get in anyone's way as they quickly, efficiently tend to the task at hand.

"His lung is busted (and) we need to do an incision and put in a tube that lets the excess pressure out," Martin explains.

"As soon as I opened him up, I could hear the gurgling."

Outside, in the hot sunshine, an anxious colleague wearing a black protective vest sits and waits, concern obvious on his face.

It's not known who planted the roadside bomb, but given the more difficult task of attacking well armoured Canadians, insurgents have been going after "soft targets" — like Afghan police or security guards, Pruneault says.

Besides Martin and another permanent staffer qualified in advanced trauma life support, the Canadian team at the Unit Medical Station also comprises an ambulance crew with a medic, along with a driver who is a nurse in civilian life.

"We're well prepared," Martin says.

The unit mainly treats Afghan nationals brought to the base gate because Canadian or other coalition casualties, if serious, are flown straight to the large, modern hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

Besides bomb strikes, the team sees gunshot wounds — including one recent case where Canadian soldiers shot an Afghan truck driver who did not stop when commanded. It turned out he had no brakes.

With both men patched up and stabilized as far they can be, they are again mounted on stretchers, strapped to the front of the ATV painted in military brown with a red cross on the front and driven back down the dirt road to a heli-pad.

The requested medevac chopper roars in for a landing, the two patients are loaded up, and they whirl away to a hospital at Camp Hero, an Afghan National Army base near Kandahar Airfield.

Just another day in Afghanistan. Two more casualties.

"He was pretty banged up but it could have been worse," Martin says of the more critically injured man.

We also estimate this number to be low due to the stigma associated with seeking and accepting help!

Sometimes those who save lives need to heal

The men and women of our emergency and military services see tragic events every day. They witness human suffering up close and it sometimes becomes very difficult to cope with the aftermath.

Smells, sounds and reliving witnessed events create lasting painful memories that haunt these men and women for life. It is their legacy for helping others in times of human suffering.

The Tema Conter Memorial Trust was established to end the silence and ease the suffering.

Through research, education, training, and through the provision of peer and psychological support, we aim to help these men and women when they need it most.

Welcometo Common Threads Halifax

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The men and women of our emergency and military services see tragic events every day. They witness human suffering up close and it sometimes becomes very difficult to cope with the aftermath.

The aftermath sometimes means that they will suffer with lasting memories that just won't go away. Recalling the smells, remembering the sounds and reliving the witnessed events sometimes haunt these men and women for life.

Through research, education, training, and through the provision of peer and psychological support, we aim to help these men and women when they need it most.

Join us on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at our Halifax Education Conference.

Learn about the latest research, newest trends and innovations dealing with acute, cumulative, vicarious and post traumatic stress within emergency services and military operations

Learn from subject matter experts and peers. Connect and collaborate with other professionals at the forefront of mental health in the workplace

Learn from the personal stories that will be shared by members of Canada's emergency services and military organizations

Halifax Gala 2011

Cheers to 10 Years

A Tribute to our Emergency Services and Military Personnel

Please join us on Thursday, May 19, 2011 for our 10th Anniversary Gala.

In his keynotes, Franklin shares stories about the work he and his fellow soldiers were doing in Afghanistan. Whatever your feelings on Canada's involvement, he brings an articulate, non-polemical and rarely glimpsed human element to discussions of our mission. With affable charm and perspective, he also talks about the infamous bombing -- about how a combination of improvisational teamwork, mental toughness and vigorous training kept him alive. At the core of his talk is the immense hope he held onto, even when things looked bleakest, to see his family and to be able to walk his son to school every morning.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What many people don't know is that it was not that America did not love the idea of the liberal elite concept of "nation building" and was never to be part of the process of invasion or reconstruction.

The Bush admin felt that it didn't need to nation build and if a country was truly free it would build itself. They were so against the concept of nation building that they felt that the ISAF troop currently located in and around Kabul (in 2003 and 2004) would be a hindrance to the US troops looking for al Qeada and the Taliban. The US restricted the movement of the ISAF troops as the Taliban and Al Qeada fighters returned home. In December 2005 Def Sec Rumsfled even wanted to remove US troops (1/6th of his fighting force) from Afghanistan as it was felt there was no fight in Afghanistan and the situation was contained. Thankfully the troops never did leave.

By the summer of 2006 US, Dutch and Canadian forces would kill and capture over 1000 Taliban fighters poised to take the capital of Kandahar province (op Medusa). The war was hardly over and it in fact had been simmering for some time and now it was to explode.

So only 4 years after the war started was ISAF allowed to take part in the missions and seeing the US reluctance to put its own troops at risk (as they were dealing with the Iraq problem) many countries made a commitment to Afghan that could have been stronger. They also saw that US government was uninterested in the Afghan problem and thought that this was and always would be the small fish to fry.

The Taliban who once trained foreign fighters in the Hindu kush now went to Iraq and trained on the new tactics of the new jihad.... IED and suicide bombing. They learned off the best and soon ISAF, Afghans and civilians would be dying left and right. All for mistakes that were seen , that were explained and were vocalized and yet no one listened.

What is the message we can learn?

How can we help the Afghans best help themselves?

In the most simplest terms had these things been done early on in the campaign the war in Afghanistan could be over. This could be the exit strategy.

1. Make a supreme commander like an Eisenhower and give him direction on the special forces and the ISAF forces, border patrol and even with some elements within the Pakistan army that borders the Afk Pak areas. (Gen Petreaus would be the most obvious choice but, there are many other just as capable)

2. Start training and equipping the warlords gangs and thugs and make them as the nexus of the Afghan army and through regular militarization, good pay, good equipment and good training and they may do well.

3. Start the Afghan National Police almost from scratch but, use local city Marshall's and deputies that know the towns they live in as a cork bottle on the ANP.

(think sheriff and deputies and the RCMP as the national force)

4. Strong judiciary that utilizes local customs and elders in the decision making process, but all based on the Afghan constitution.

5. Engage the local Afghans in the getting the foreign forces to leave (which is always a long standing gripe) by having them engage in government, engage in rejecting extremism and help the local (trusted) forces take care of the problem and those can be the Sheriff, the ANP, the ANA, ISAF or US forces.

6. Ensure the computer networks systems are run and well protected. The freedom revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt started through simple social media and that level of knowledge can continue to Afghan society. The Taliban may use media and computers to get their messages across but they don't want anyone Else's messages to be revived. Computers in schools wi fi in school and police stations and fire halls and government buildings and even in public spaces. These are the things that produce more results than bombs bullets or even food.

7. Stop the poppy eradication's and pay for the crop and secure the crop to companies like Pfizer or hospitals to be made in opiate based drugs. Then encourage high value crops that give the Afghans and their distributors fair share of the payment structure and fair market value for their products.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

It means teaching the police, training and equipping the ANA to become a professional army,

It means helping to create a government and judicial system from scratch,

It means going to the farthest corner of the world and keeping our values in place when all around seems lost,

It's making friends with a foreign people with foreign values, customs and even ideals and finding common ground.

I go to places like Afghanistan to fight hatred and fascism.

I have met kids with fingers cut off for flying kits, girls brunt with acid for simply going to school.

I have given polio shots to one of the last places on earth that polio exists,

I have worked side by side with ANA and ANP and UK and US and Dutch soldiers and we didn't kill any kids and we didn't kill any civilians.

The Afghan people are human and simply want to live their lives and not be subjected to hatred and intolerance.

I am willing to give up my life for that cause. I don't fight for GW Bush or Chretien I go to war with simple rule of engagement (protect yourself) then every decision you make is your own. We don't go to war for some petro company we go to war so that my son and a kid in Afghan can have the same chances in life.

If the Taliban want to come back fine let them but the people of Afghan wont tolerate being used and abused anymore. The people of Afghan are better and smarter than that.

I want a happy Afghanistan where people can choose to go to work or not, go to university or not, all kids of both genders have to go to school, women aren't beaten or married at 12, boys aren't raped, people are proud of their country their religion and even their history. We must always try to do what's right. We may not succeed but we have to try

Fighting in Afghanistan was authorized under a UN resolution and also under article 5 of the NATO charter. Countries made a choice to go based on political debate (Chretian authorized the deployment) and countries also chose where to send the troops. As ISAF spread its command across the country Canada (under Martin) chose to go to Kandahar.

As for geneva conventions Canada has always upheld the Geneva conventions. PM Martin authorized that any detainees would be handed over to the Afghan government in accordance to the whole government approach. The main reason he authorized the handing of detainees to the afghan judicial system was the knowledge that if they had handed them over to American command they would be tortured. Bagram (where Khdar was sent), Gitmo and of course the recent allegations of Abu Gharib were all reasons to send people to the judicery of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Was it the best option? Its better then shipping them to Canada.

Imagine the up roar if we set up a POW camp in Canada?

As for Harper you may dislike him but this war has been directed by the military on the ground. The civilians do the diplomacy and the direction of the war is directed by the security situation and also the goals of the Cdn contingent and under ISAF goals.

The goal to put it simply is to help provide a security situation where the Islamic republic of Afghanistan government can establish control first in the cities and then in outlying areas. The return of refugees from abroad and the rebuilding (most cases building) the infrastructure needed to move from a failed state to a member of the world of nations.

Should we give up because its hard or should we work our hardest when it is the toughest?

When we go to a country like Afghan where the AVERAGE life expectancy is just 44, polio, leprosy still exist, most children die under the age of 15. They used to be the worst country in the world prior to 2001 and now they are 3rd or 5th depending on what measures you use. For them to move up even one level they have to exponentially grow.

The world looks to Canada for all the good we do if its helping Southern Sudan diplomatically and logistically in their quest for independence from the north. The world defence departments also look to Canadian military expertise in combat and in historical exp. A Canadian general will run the ISAF training programs, a cdn general is in charge of the NATO ops in Libya.

Cdn soldiers choose to go back never because they have to but because they choose to.

A historian who specialized in the italian campaign asked some commandos from the first special service force why they go to war. The US commandos said so hitler won't come here, so fascism doesn't come to America and then they asked the cdns the same question and the answer was that they wanted to help the italians have better lives.

When asked why we go back to afghanistan with a chance of being killed, wounded (either physically or physcologically) or worse the answer is simple, its to help the afghans help themselves.

We know our pensions suck, a lot of our equipment doesn't work that well, we sometimes wear green camo in the desert, we have 30 year old planes supported with 40 year old planes and ships with 50 year old helicopters, and we are all of 110 000 people strong (army navy airforce and reserves). Yet we protect the northern end of north america, ships in three oceans, peacekeeping operations, training operations (that used to be and still is down by US green beret) around the world, combat operations in the sky, the ground and on the sea.

I have never been more proud of being Canadian then being a wounded Canadian for a just cause.

A woman who was seen walking down the street had her nose cut off. I have given polio shots to one of the last places on earth that polio exists,

Omar Khadr with severed hands

I have worked side by side with ANA and ANP and UK and US and Dutch soldiers and we didn't kill any kids and we didn't kill any civilians.

The Afghan people are human and simply want to live their lives and not be subjected to hatred and intolerance.

Woman executed

I am willing to give up my life for that cause. I don't fight for GW Bush or Chretien I go to war with simple rule of engagement (protect yourself) then every decision you make is your own. We don't go to war for some petro company we go to war so that my son and a kid in Afghanistan can have the same chances in life.

Woman whipped

If the Taliban want to come back fine let them but the people of Afghanistan wont tolerate being used and abused anymore. The people of Afghan are better and smarter than that.